What Do You Want to Harvest This Fall?

16 hours ago

5 min read

There is always something about early September that makes me want to pause, look around, and take audit of my life and year.

It feels like one of those natural reset points in the year. Mornings are getting cooler, evenings are feeling cozier, and I find myself craving hot beverages, clean spaces, fresh notebooks and earlier nights.

I think it’s also because by September, we’ve lived enough of the year to actually know something about it.

If you think back to December 2025, before this year had happened yet, what did you imagine 2026 would look like? What were you hoping for? What were you excited about? Who did you think you might become?

Now think about where you actually are.

Did it play out exactly as you imagined? Or are you standing somewhere completely different?

Odds are, the first eight months of this year have given you something, and your answer ends up being a mixture of both.

There are things you likely know now that you didn’t know in January. There are probably things you care less about, things you care more about, people you understand differently and parts of yourself you have gotten to know better. There may be things you wanted at the beginning of the year that you’re actually quite grateful didn’t happen, and things you never could have planned for that ended up becoming a big part of your story this year.

All of this has been mulling over my mind as I see the tips of the trees teetering us into fall.

What have I actually grown this year?

Not just what have I accomplished, because I don’t always think those are the same thing. But what have I learned? What has changed me? What is clearer about my life now? What do I understand about myself that I couldn’t have understood without living the last eight months?

It’s easy to look back at seasons of our life and immediately notice what hasn’t come true yet, what we wish had gone differently or what might be missing or gone now. But if we take a moment to look a bit harder, I think there is value in seeing what else might have grown, what actually did come into fruition, and what we’re grateful to have exactly the same.

Maybe this was the year you had better boundaries. Maybe a season of 2026 brought you a stronger sense of self. Maybe you’ve learned what you are no longer willing to settle for, or what you actually need in order to feel at ease in your everyday life.

You don’t have to be grateful for the difficult things that might have happened in order to recognize what you learned from surviving it.

And you don’t have to turn every experience into some grand lesson, either.

Sometimes the harvest of our year is simply knowing something now that we didn’t know before.

What Do You Want to Harvest?

There are still nearly four months left of 2026.

I actually find that thought comforting, because sixteen weeks (give or take) is a decent amount of time. Not in a hurry, we need to make this year count kind of way, but in the sense that there is still plenty of time to live out the full arc of this year.

So… if you were sitting across from me right now I would ask you: what would make the rest of 2026 feel peaked?

Is there anything you started that you’re going to push to finish? Are you dedicating this descending season to pouring into your health and glow? Are you excited at the thought of getting your house in order, reconnecting with those you love, honing in on a hobby or form of creation, getting your finances organized, spending more time outside, or finding your way back to a version of yourself you’ve been missing?

Think about what you’ve already planted into the year? What’s showed signs of taking root and growing into your life? What might actually flourish and seed into future years if you gave it another thirty, sixty, or ninety days of your attention?

I like thinking about it this way because it takes some of the pressure off of becoming a levelled up version of myself every time a new season begins. You don’t necessarily need a new life or “rebranding” this fall. You might just need to take better care of the you that you already are.

How Do You Want to Feel?

This is usually the question I come back to whenever I’m planning a new season because goals are helpful, but they don’t always tell me whether I actually want the work, habits or lifestyle required to achieve them.

So forget what you want to accomplish for a second. Tell me, how do you want to feel this fall?

For me, I want to feel aligned.

I want my everyday life to feel aligned with the things I say matter to me: my family, my work, my health, my home, my creativity and the person I am continuing to become.

I also want to feel prepared enough that I can actually relax and enjoy the fruits of my dedication and labour. I don’t want to spend an entire season getting ready for the next one. I want to do the work that makes my life feel good and then actually be there to enjoy it.

Finish this sentence.

My fall harvest will be ____________________.

Whatever comes to mind write it down before you have too much time to overthink it.

Then ask yourself what that harvest actually needs from you.

Now imagine December 31st, 2026.

You’ve lived the fall. The holidays have come and gone. The year that currently still feels unfinished is suddenly behind you.

How do you want to feel when you look back at these last few months?

What do you want to be proud of?

There’s a chance you don’t need to accomplish everything you thought you would when this year began. Maybe you just want to know you were present for your life while it was happening. That you took care of yourself. That you made memories. That you finished the thing you were dedicated to. That you stopped rushing through the day to day. That you listened when something inside of you sent you a subtle message.

Now, all that said, there is nothing magical about January 1st that gives us permission to begin again. September can actually do that for you too. And you don’t need to wait until the first of a month or a new Monday. You can always start at it right now.

You can change your mind about what you want from this year. You can set a new goal or let an old one go. You can pick something back up. You can slow down. You can decide that the way you’ve been doing something isn’t working anymore and try another way. Because there is still plenty of year left.

So before the leaves fully change and fall and we’re suddenly drinking something warm while wondering how Christmas is already three weeks away, give yourself some space to think about where you are.